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Friday, 20 November 2015

Mitsubishi Motors to open assembly plant in Nigeria

Mitsubishi Motors Corp expects to open an assembly plant in Nigeria next year, joining the growing list of carmakers setting up local assembly plants in the country, the Japanese group's regional head told Reuters.

"It's still in negotiation - you can say in the third round out of 10," Anand Singh, the regional head in West Africa, said.

"We have identified the land. Now we are waiting for some clearances from customs, finance ministry ... so that's the status."

Analysts say the auto market in Africa's biggest economy has huge potential. Only a small number of new vehicles are sold annually as the market has hitherto been dominated by secondhand imports.

However, along with the threat of imposing prohibitive import duties the government has been pushing for the development of local production under a National Automotive Industry Development Plan, with the industry ministry having ordered local car distributors last year to come up with plans for new assembly plants. It was then up to the local companies to partner with a foreign car producer, Singh told Reuters.

Earlier this week Ford Motor Co announced the opening of its new Nigerian plant, its first in Africa outside South Africa, through dealer, Coscharis Motors Ltd.

Germany's Volkswagen AG also resumed local assembly operations in July, with local partner, Stallion Group, after a 20-year hiatus, while Honda announced in July the start of local production for its Accord car.